Psychology2016

590 CHAPTER 15

Practice Quiz How much do you remember?

Pick the best answer.

1. One of the first therapists to begin a movement towards the humane
   treatment of patients was
   a. Robert Fleury.
   b. Philippe Pinel.

c. Sigmund Freud.

d. Josef Breuer.

2. Psychotherapies that attempt to increase the understanding of a
   client’s motives are known as __ therapies.
   a. insight
   b. action

c. biomedical

d. psychoanalytic

3. DeWayne has decided to seek psychotherapy for some personal
   difficulties he has been having. While on the telephone with one
   possible clinician, he asks her to describe the kind of treatment

approach that she uses with clients. “I don’t limit myself to a single

theory or approach,” the therapist answers. “Instead I operate in a(n)

_________ fashion, integrating various treatment approaches based

on the specific needs of each client.”

a. eclectic

b. Gestalt

c. supratheoretical

d. atheoretical

4. Which of the following is not one of the main types of therapy noted
   by your textbook that helps people improve their overall functioning?
   a. Insight therapy
   b. Action therapy
   c. Biomedical therapy

d. Regressive therapy

Insight Therapies: Psychodynamic and

Humanistic Approaches

We’ll begin our discussion of psychotherapy with two types of insight therapies: psycho-

dynamic therapy and humanistic therapy. While these approaches use different methods,

they both strive to gain an understanding of one’s motives and actions.

Psychotherapy Begins: Freud’s Psychoanalysis

15.2 Describe the basic elements of Freud’s psychoanalysis and psychody-

namic approaches today.

So what exactly happens in psychoanalysis? I’ve heard lots of

stories about it, but what’s it really like?

In a sense, Freud took the sixteenth-century method of physical cleansing to a different

level. Instead of a physical purge, cleansing for Freud meant removing all the “impuri-

ties” of the unconscious mind that he believed were responsible for his patients’ psycho-

logical and nervous disorders. (Freud was a medical doctor and referred to the people

who came to him for help as “patients.”) The impurities of the unconscious mind were

considered to be disturbing thoughts, socially unacceptable desires, and immoral urges

that originated in the id, the part of the personality that is itself unconscious and driven

by basic needs for survival and pleasure. to Learning Objective 13.1.

PSYCHOANALYSIS Freud believed that his patients used these unconscious thoughts

to prevent anxiety, and as such, the thoughts would not be easily brought into con-

scious awareness. Freud designed a therapy technique to help his patients feel more

relaxed, open, and able to explore their innermost feelings without fear of embar-

rassment or rejection. This method was called psychoanalysis, and it is an insight ther-

apy that emphasizes revealing the unconscious conflicts, urges, and desires that are

assumed to cause disordered emotions and behavior (Freud, 1904a, 1904b; Mitchell

& Black, 1996). This is the original reason for the couch in Freud’s version of psycho-

analysis; people lying on the couch were more relaxed and would, Freud thought,

feel more dependent and childlike, making it easier for them to “get at” those early

childhood memories. An additional plus was that he could sit behind the patients at

the head of the couch and take notes. Without the patients being able to see his reac-

tions to what they said, they remained unaffected by his reactions.

“Why do you think you cross the road?”
© The New Yorker Collection 1990 Arnie Levin
from cartoonbank.com. All Rights Reserved.